Haraldur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson

From Wikipedia:

Education:
Sveinbjörnsson studied piano with Árni Harðarson at the Kopavogur Music School where he graduated 1997. He finished B.A.degree in composition at Reykjavik Music College 2001 with Hilmar Þórðarson, and M.Mus degree in composition at Lund University (Malmö Music University) where he studied with Kent Olofsson and prof. Luca Francesconi. Sveinbjörnsson also studied recording technique through various courses.

Compositions:
His orchestra piece, Seven Songs of the Insomniac (original title: Sjö byltur svefnleysingjans), won the 'Morgondagens tonsättare'-prize (Tomorrow's composer) in Helsingborg, Sweden 2003. A year later, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra premiered two pieces by H.Sveinbjörnsson, 7 Songs of the Insomniac in February, and Hraun in May. 7 Songs of the Insomniac was also nominated as best contemporary music at the Icelandic Music Awards 2005. Other notable pieces include Memento Mei (2005) for mixed choir, Piece & Harmony (2001) for string orchestra, Duel for solo contrabass and electronics (2003), Dawn (2007) for percussion duo and Hodie (2009) for women's choir. His pieces have been performed all over Europe, in the USA and Australia.

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Haraldur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson, goes by the artist name; Red Barnett. He began his music career studying the piano at the age of 8, and soon started recording his music on cassettes. He's still at it, though less and less on cassettes.

Every testosterone-infested young man dreams of becoming a rock guitarist. Red's dream came true in the form of Dead Sea Apple, the critically acclaimed grunge-based band which still has a lot of respect in the undergrounds of the Icelandic rock industry. The band released the album 'Crush' in Iceland and Japan, to good reviews and moderate success. Dead Sea Apple is still around and they are currently working on a new album.

Along with playing rock music, Red stumbled back into the world of contemporary music – he went on to study classical composition at Reykjavik Music College and got his Masters diploma in composition at Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden back in 2004.

Red’s contemporary music has been played widely around the world. The orchestral piece “Seven Songs of the Insomniac” earned him the “Composer of Tomorrow” award in Helsingborg, Sweden and an Icelandic Music Awards nomination as best contemporary piece in 2005.

His arrangement talents have been put to good use – He has worked several times for The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, recently arranging Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the Orchestra and super rock group Dúndurfréttir.

Red Barnett a.k.a. Haraldur Vignir Sveinbjörnsson is also currently active with Menn Ársins.